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Tuesday, May 27, 2008

I just spent two weeks trying to get blogcoach.blogspot.com to show up as BlogCoach.org. You more technically-oriented folks can go ahead and snicker, but I sure learned a lot about DNS settings during the process!

There are two aspects of my personality that decidedly do not lend themselves to the more technical aspects of blogging. First, I'm not the tech type. I majored in English and I'm horrible at logic puzzles and sudoku (though I love both). Second, I hate to read directions before I jump in to a project. I also hate asking for your help, preferring to figure everything out on my own. Thus the excessive wasting of time / learning experience.

The whole processes of making this blog show up as BlogCoach.org was pretty simple-- a matter of following instructions, really. Baby Cheapskate shows up as BabyCheapskate.com, but that's just a forward (via Yahoo Domains). For reasons that would make this paragraph too complicated I needed to actually mess with DNS settings (huh?). The problem was that I had (notice past tense!) no idea what several of the terms used in the instructions, like DNS, CName, and "a record", meant. As a result, there was an awful lot of trial and error involved as I changed settings in a slightly willy-nilly manner and waited for them to take effect so that I could see if they worked.

The moral of the story? Using your time wisely means using your resources wisely. Ask for help. Ask a friend or fellow blogger or ask the help desk where you buy your domain. Don't feel silly because you don't know much. No one expects you to. If you get advice you don't understand, ask for clarification.

Will I follow my own advice next time? Probably not. I'm just not the type.

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